Effect Of Knowledge Management On Organization Performance In The Public Service Sector In Kenya

Abstract

Knowledge management is very critical in the working of an organization because it provides for the creation and transfer of knowledge effectively in an organization. This study determined the effect of knowledge management on organizational performance in the public-sector organizations of Kenya. The specific objectives were: to determine the effect of knowledge creation on organizational performance in the public service of Kenya, to establish the effect of knowledge sharing on organizational performance in the public service of Kenya, to find out the effect of knowledge application on organizational performance in the public service of Kenya, and to establish the effect of knowledge storage on organizational performance in the public service of Kenya. This study adopted multiple regression design to establish the effect between the independent and dependent study variables. The target population included the 2343 employees at the ministry of devolution, ministry of labor social security and services and the ministry of information communication and technology. The researcher used simple random sampling and stratified sampling technique to obtain a sample size of 303 respondents. Primary data was collected using structured questionnaires and applying the drop and pick later method in data collection procedure. A pilot group of 15 staff working at the public service commission was used in testing the validity and reliability of the instrument. The collected data was entered into SPSS 23.0 and MS. excel for further analysis computation. The study found out that coefficient of correlation R was 0.897 an indication that the variables were highly correlated. Adjusted R2 was 0.801 an indication that variations in organizational performance was influenced by the independent variables. The study concludes that knowledge creation, sharing, application and storage positively influenced organizational performance of public service in Kenya. This was attributed to the following factors; public service authority patented new ideas and knowledge it created and encouraged functional heads to champion creation of new knowledge, staffs learnt to carry out their job by sharing out duties, respondents indicated that the ministries planned for seminars to share knowledge on current work place and staffs were trained on different tasks on different job to share knowledge. The study recommends that public service ought to talking with technical experts in specific field for knowledge creation and employees ought to be valued. New knowledge ought to be created at the public service in an organized formal training session. Ministries ought to plan for seminars to share knowledge on current work place. Staffs ought to be trained on different tasks on different job to share knowledge. Trainings ought to cover different tasks in various duties for staffs to share information. The stakeholders ought to use public services to create knowledge and to increase service delivery to the citizens, collect knowledge to help in solving everyday work problems and improve service delivery to public service. The ministry system ought to have a trail to monitor access on knowledge stored, they ought to have a proper mechanism of retrieving stored work procedures and manuals and use advanced systems in storing their created knowledge.